Estratégias de Aprendizagem e Sintomas de Depressão Infantil

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the use of learning strategies in children, with and without depressive symptoms, registered in basic education, in public and private schools, from João Pessoa-PB and Natal-RN. The sample was composed by 483 children [(João Pessoa (n=280); Natal (2030)], between 10 and 12 years old, from 4th to 9th grade. Tracking sample s sociodemographic aspects, absence/presence of depressive symptomatology , and the repertoire, cognitive e metacognitive , of learning strategies, were used, respectively, a sociodemographic questionnaire (gender, town, education level and academic failure history), the CDI-breve (cut point ≥ 17) and the Learning Strategies Scale (LSS). Results points to an index of 10,7% (n=52) of depressive symptomatology, these children were more often on items of the CDI-brief that probed about the negative perception of depressed mood, pessimism, guilt, worry, isolation, insomnia , self-esteem and disobedience. The results did not show any evidence of relation between sociodemographic variables and depressive symptoms in that sample. The relationship between learning strategies and depression was not statistically evidenced, nevertheless, children with depressive symptomatology expressed weakly to use metacognitive strategies of emotive control. An interesting fact emerges comparing the average of the total sample (68.67 points) with other studies conducted in the South, we obtained a decrease of 20 points in the LLS. This result requires more specific studies, to investigate the difference for this population.